1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a combination editable and fixed entry input menu field in a menu for a computer system, and, in particular, to a method and system for providing a combination editable and fixed entry input menu field that provides and allows flexibility in switching and selecting between selectable fields wherein each of the selectable fields is able to provide and allow a user to choose between an editable selectable field(s) that each stores and provides editable entries and a fixed selectable field(s) that each stores and provides fixed entries. Still more particularly, the combination editable and fixed entry input menu field provides and allows flexibility in switching and selecting between setting up the booting by the computer system to a network under an operating system(s) having a conventional or standard path and filenames for boot up to a network and an operating system(s) having a less conventional or more customized path and filenames for boot up to a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Menus are used by a computer system for setting up and/or selecting various preferences, options, and other such data or settings. At times, these preferences and options may be provided and stored as standard, conventional, and generally fixed information or data that is typically used and specified in the menu, and at other times, these preferences and options may be provided and stored as customized or less conventional information or data that need to be manually inputted or edited in the menu. Menus that allow a user to select a selection field and then choose within the selection field between one of the editable fields with editable entries and/or one of the fixed fields with fixed entries generally do not exist, and it would be advantageous and desirable to have such selection fields for menus.
One example of such menus and menu fields are boot up menus with menu fields to set up the boot up preferences and options. Various methods and manners on how a computer system initializes and boots up over a network presently exist. Generally, when a computer system boots up to a network, the computer system requires identification of the appropriate path(s) and filenames of various files and information in order to properly load and to begin operating and running on the network under the respective operating system. For example, if the computer system were installed under a normal Microsoft(copyright) NT (xe2x80x9cNTxe2x80x9d) operating system installation and were running under the NT operating system, then the computer system would have to be specified with and take the appropriate NT path or paths and filenames to the server(s) on the network when booting thereon. If the computer system were installed under an AIX operating system installation and were running under the AIX operating system, then the computer system would have to be specified with and take the appropriate AIX path or paths and filenames to the server(s) on the network when booting thereon. If the computer system were installed under an AX400 operating system installation and were running under the AX400 operating system, then the computer system would have to be specified with and take the appropriate AX400 path or paths and filenames to the server(s) on the network when booting thereon. If the computer system were installed under a customized or entirely different type of operating system installation and were running under this customized or entire different operating system, the computer system would have to be specified with and take path or paths and filenames to the server(s) on the network that support this operating system when booting thereon.
Most networks have a protocol in order to facilitate communications with computer systems. A network typically has at least various servers, and each server is set up to recognize each computer system. Thus, the computer system needs to load or be directed to and access information, programs, or files with filenames and addresses wherein the information, programs, or files are on the network. The information, programs, or files are identified and specified by paths and filenames that are generally non-volatile data, and the paths and filenames are typically maintained by the computer system in non-volatile memory. For example, in booting up onto the network, the computer system would store the Internet protocol addresses of the server on the network and the name of the boot up file to download from the server.
Generally, a boot up menu field is provided for setting up the boot process. The boot up menu field is activated by a sequence of keys that halts the boot up process and displays the menu. The menu allows the user to set up preferences and selected or specified options for the boot up process. The path and filenames for booting up the respective operating system is specified in this menu. The menu field requires an ASCII string as an input for storing the path and filenames. Some problems related to these ASCII strings are limitations of space on the screen for displaying the menu and storage space in non-volatile memory to store the ASCII string. For example, the ASCII string for the path may be ten characters long. Three to four different filenames may be used in the path. However, only five hundred twelve (512) bytes of non-volatile memory typically exist for storing all this information. Thus, space on the menu and space in non-volatile memory are both very limited for respectively displaying and storing the path and filenames used for boot up by the computer system. The conventional method of displaying and saving this network boot up information for the computer system requires that the entire ASCII string be typed and displayed on the menu screen and saved into the non-volatile memory. Thus, valuable or limited menu space and non-volatile memory space are easily used up by the display and storage of the paths and filenames.
The menu field is typically set up with a particular conventional default path and filenames for boot up of the computer system to a network. Paths and filenames for conventional operating systems or operating systems that are set up and saved in a conventional manner are usually fairly easy to identify, specify, and save as default settings. However, non-conventional or customized operating systems or operating systems that are set up or saved in a less conventional or more customized manner require the more tedious task of inputting and maintaining the appropriate path(s) and filenames and the accurate identification and specification of the default path(s) and filenames within the menu and the maintenance and storage of the path(s) and filenames in non-volatile memory. The present menu field does not provide nor allow a significant amount of flexibility in switching and selecting between setting up the booting under an operating system(s) having a conventional or standard path and filenames (i.e. accessing generally editable path and filenames) for boot up to a network and an operating system(s) having a less conventional or more customized path and filenames (i.e. accessing generally fixed path and filenames) for boot up to a network.
It is therefore advantageous and desirable to provide a combination editable and fixed entry input menu field used in a menu for a computer system wherein the menu field provides a selection field(s) wherein each selection field has entry fields that allow a user to select and/or switch between various selections such as an editable field with editable data and a fixed field with fixed data as being the selected entry field. It is further advantageous and desirable to provide a combination editable and fixed entry input menu field used during a boot process of a network computer system. It is also advantageous and desirable to provide a menu field that provides and allows flexibility in more easily switching and/or selecting between setting up the booting under an operating system(s) having a conventional or standard path and filenames for boot up to a network and an operating system(s) having a less conventional or more customized path and filenames for boot up to a network. It is further advantageous and desirable to provide a menu field that uses less non-volatile memory for storing the ASCII string input that specifies and identifies the boot path and filenames for booting a computer system under an operating system to a network. It is still advantageous and desirable to provide a menu field that uses less or minimizes the use of space on the menu for displaying the ASCII string input that specifies the boot path and filenames for booting a computer system under an operating system to a network.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a combination editable and fixed entry input menu field used in a menu for a computer system wherein the menu field provides a selection field(s) wherein each selection field has entry fields that allow a user to select and/or switch between various selections such as an editable field with editable data and a fixed field with fixed data as being the selected entry field.
It is therefore another object of the present invention to provide a combination editable and fixed entry input menu field used during a boot process of a network computer system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a menu field that provides and allows flexibility in more easily switching and/or selecting between setting up the booting under an operating system(s) having a conventional or standard path and filenames for boot up to a network and an operating system(s) having a less conventional or more customized path and filenames for boot up to a network.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a menu field that uses less non-volatile memory for storing the ASCII string input that specifies and identifies the boot path and filenames for booting a computer system under an operating system to a network.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a menu field that uses less or minimizes the use of space on the menu for displaying the ASCII string input that specifies the boot path and filenames for booting a computer system under an operating system to a network.
The foregoing objects are achieved as is now described. A combination editable and fixed entry input menu field is a field within a menu displayed on a computer screen. The menu field is used to set up options and preferences for a computer system, such as in a boot up menu for booting the computer system to a network. The menu field provides and allows flexibility in more easily switching and/or selecting between various selections such as setting up the network booting under a conventional and non-conventional operating system(s). The menu field uses less non-volatile memory for storing strings that specify the boot path and filenames and also uses less space on the menu for displaying the strings that specify the boot path and filenames. Selectable fields with entry fields are provided for the combination menu field. Entry fields comprise various selections such as at least one editable selectable field and at least one fixed selectable field. Editable selectable field(s) allows entries to be edited therein and changably saved into a memory system. Fixed selectable field(s) allows entries to be fixed therein and unchangably saved into the memory system. One of the selectable fields is selected. The user is able to scroll through the entry fields in the selected selectable field. One of the entry fields within the selected selectable field is selected. The user is able to choose within the selected selectable field between various selections such as between an editable field with editable entries and a fixed field with fixed entries as being the selected entry field.
The above as well as additional objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.